Security guard numbers will be boosted at Victorian hospitals to better respond to violence, in a move partly inspired by the death of a Melbourne heart surgeon allegedly attacked outside his workplace.
Cardiothoracic surgeon Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann died in June, nearly a month after being attacked when he told someone to stop smoking at the entrance to Box Hill Hospital.
The government will inject $6.7 million a year to employ an extra 123 full-time security guards at 44 Victorian hospitals, Health Minister Jill Hennessy announced on Wednesday.
She hoped the culture will change and hospital staff will call more code greys - the emergency signal for violence - when they feel threatened.
"Sometimes when you're working at a hospital you can become desensitised to working with people with mental health, drug and alcohol problems and aggressive families and come to accept that's the way thing are," she told reporters at Box Hill Hospital.
"What we've tried to do is to send a strong message that it is not an acceptable culture for our health services."
She said Dr Pritzwald-Steggman's death showed the need to get that message out quickly and to roll out planned security measures with more urgency.
More than 60 health services have already received funding for alarms, CCTV, access control doors, lighting and security systems.
Waiting areas have also been redesigned and a statewide policy for code grey calls was implemented in September, the government said.
Eastern Health CEO David Plunkett said the incident at Box Hill Hospital has led his organisation to set up a occupational violence taskforce.
"The incident had a dramatic effect not only on Patrick and his family, but on the staff here and they are slowly recovering," he said.
"Certainly staff expressed they felt vulnerable after the incident and will use the additional funding for an extra security guard."
Joseph Esmaili, 22, has been charged with manslaughter while on bail and unlawful killing following Dr Pritzwald-Stegmann's death.
He is due to return to court in February.
